Scoop: TheSkimm hires bankers, exploring sale to non-media company

TheSkimm, a digital media company catering to millennial women, has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. to evaluate deal offers, sources tell Axios.

By the numbers: The company brought in roughly $20 million in 2019 revenue, per sources. Its leadership has been telling stakeholders that it expects revenues this year to be nearly double that number by year's end.

Details: Sources say the company is eyeing sales to non-media companies, like financial services companies and luxury brands that are desperate to reach millennial women.

• It's also explored some strategic partnerships, which would be with media companies, including being a part of a SPAC rollup.
• It's had a few conversations with pure-play media companies, like Discovery, which on Monday announced a mega-deal of its own with WarnerMedia.
• The company officially engaged JPMC a few weeks ago to evaluate inbound offers and partnerships.

Be smart: TheSkimm's value to a products or services company may be greater than it would be to a traditional media company.

• TheSkimm is one of the few assets up for sale that could help a brand reach millennial women. (Its main newsletter The Daily Skimm has over 7.5 million active subscribers, mostly women under 35.)
• Its financials may be a tougher sell for a traditional media company, looking to maximize profits from content, as opposed to company selling goods or services to a niche audience of millennial women.
• TheSkimm has raised nearly $30 million from a number of investors, including GV (Google Ventures), Goldman Sachs, RRE Ventures and Homebrew.

The big picture: More companies that aren't traditional media firms have been exploring such deals as a way to boost customer acquisition.

• For example, HubSpot, a publicly-traded marketing software company, bought The Hustle, an email newsletter company targeted at entrepreneurs, in February for $27 million.
• TheSkimm's investments in financial literacy content for millennial women may make it an attractive asset for a financial tech or services company. During the pandemic, it launched a financial literacy vertical called SkimmMoney alongside a virtual course program called "SkimmU."

Between the lines: Rumors and speculation around TheSkimm's sale prospects have been swirling for years, as the company is one of the remaining standalone digital media companies that's left to buy.

• More media companies are consolidating to be able to better compete with tech giants like Facebook or Google for eyeballs and attention.